Bbenzon
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 6893 )
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Coupling and Human Community: Miscellaneous Notes on the Fundamental Physical...
Another working paper is available: AARN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2564998 Academia.edu: Read more
Posted on 14 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Psychedelics Are Being Revived
There was a raft of research on psychedelic drugs back in the 1960s, and then it stopped. But researchers are once again getting interested. The New Yorker has... Read more
Posted on 14 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scientist Vs. Humanist: Dueling Strawmen
I can’t stand it. Woke up this morning, checked in at 3QD and saw a link to Sebastian Normandin, Scientism and Skepticism: A Reply to Steven Pinker. Here we go... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Red Cabbage
These photographs were taking in the Lafayette Community Learning Garden in Jersey City, NJ, in 2012. Read more
Posted on 13 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Music Genre, Redux: More and More, Bottom Up
David Beer in Berfrois: Now that music genres have been unhitched from the centralised broadcast media, and now genre labels are not ordered through TV, weeklie... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note on Mutual Knowledge of and Commentary on Literary Texts
I've been running an Academia.edu Session on my old open letter to Steven Pinker about storytelling and literary criticism. Here's a note I've appended to it. Read more
Posted on 12 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Advice for Tiger Woods: Get Jivometric
As some of you may know, Tiger Woods, one of the finest golfers in the world, is having a rough time. He just shot his worst professional game ever and has take... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Stories Read Many Times Over Change Their Valence
In oral cultures the same stories are told time and again. For every individual there will always be a first time to hear any one story, but in time they all... Read more
Posted on 12 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Death, Terror Management, and Nationalism
In Beethoven’s Anvil I cited Kierkegard, Ernst Becker and Franz Borkeneau in asserting (p. 90): “Our intelligence allows us to know that we will die, and the... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Film Rhythm After Sound - Lea Jacobs - University of California Press
Film Rhythm after Sound - Lea Jacobs - Paperback - University of California Press From the essay/review by David Bordwell: Early sound cartoons are sometimes... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Perils of Identity in Contemporary America
Wesley Yang with a New York Times profile of Eddie Huang, son of Chinese immigrants: Huang’s memoir records an unusual life trajectory: from tormented... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Appeal to the Pope on Behalf of the Creatures in the Cosmos
I’ve got another post at 3 Quarks Daily, Charlie Keil’s Simple Appeal to the Pope on Behalf of the Future. Here’s a conversation Charlie and I have been having... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Happened to the Middle-class Artists and Writers?
William Girardi reviews Culture Crash: The Killing of the Creative Class, by Scott Timberg, in The New Republic. The set-up: Here’s a paragraph grim enough to... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
We Don't Know Why the US Prison Population is So Large
Slate interviews John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham Law School who's analyzed the statistics. It's not really because of drug busts or long sentences. Read more
Posted on 08 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Musicality: Biology and Origins
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Theme issue: Biology, cognition and origins of musicality March 19, 2015; 370 (1664) Introduction Henkjan... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Time is Real and There is Only One Universe
But also, pluralism rising, as the laws of that one universe are not immutable The Guardian reviews a recent book by a physicist, Lee Smolin, and a... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Online Seminar on the Nature of Stories and the Discipline of Literary Criticism
As some of you may know, Academica.edu is a social networking site for thinkers. It’s central function is to serve as a repository for papers, whatever you... Read more
Posted on 06 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Good Morning, Vietnam & It’s a Wonderful World
I’ve watched this film three times, once when it came out, once some years ago on TV, and then again last night. It was, of course, built around its star, the... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond Lévi-Strauss on Myth: Objectification, Computation, and Cognition
Revised and extended from an earlier working paper Another working paper, revised and extended from Lévi-Strauss on Myth: Some Informal Notes. Online at:... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Study: Window Sill Objects, Light
What the title says, just objects on my window sill. Stacked at the left edge, a pack of kitchen matches on top of two plastic contains with pens and pencils... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY